(CBS) Does creativity fuel dishonesty? A provocative new study suggests that folks who think outside-the-box are using their natural abilities to think of ways to cheat the system.
"Greater creativity helps individuals solve difficult tasks across many domains," lead researcher Dr. Francesca Gino, associate professor of business administration at Harvard University, said in a written statement. "But creative sparks may lead individuals to take unethical routes when searching for solutions to problems and tasks."
For the study, published in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers used establish psychological tests to determine the 99 participants' creativity and intelligence. The participants were paid a small sum for participating in the study, and were given several opportunities to earn extra cash.
For example, in one experiment, participants took a quiz and circled their answers on a piece of paper. Afterward, the experimenter told them to transfer their answers to "bubble sheets" - like the ones used on standardized tests - but the researcher told the group she had copied the wrong sheet and that the correct answers were lightly marked. The researcher also told participants they would be paid more for more correct answers and led them to believe they could transfer their answers without detection - even though the researchers uniquely marked each paper to know for sure what was originally written.
What happened? Creative types were significantly more likely to cheat.
In another experiment, participants were shown drawings with dots on each side of a diagonal line and were asked whether there were more dots on the left or right side. Participants were told they'd be paid 5 cents for each time they said there were more dots on the right side, and 0.5 cents for the left. Though in the majority of the trials it was virtually impossible to tell whether there were more dots on one side or the other, the creative participants were significantly more likely to pick the answer that paid more.
What makes creative people so cunning?
According to LiveScience, it's creative people's ability to rationalize their actions. The authors wrote, "Being able to generate several original justifications for one's own unethical actions thanks to creativity may lead people to feel licensed to cheat."
Creative folks: Do you use your creativity to cheat the system?
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